Tuesday, 13 June 2006

At the back of my mind I have had a question about that great divide in America between the conservatives and the liberals.

I am beginning to come to that conclusion that if these ideologies were part of conjoined Siamese twins the heart of the union would be in the liberal part and probably the brains in the conservative.

I do not mean this in derogatory terms but it feeds into that scriptural saying which questions the value of owning the world and losing your soul.

The conservatives, cultural or religious are supposedly the link with our history and traditions; the liberals keep us up with developments in society as times change and civilization.

Do we need new Jesus Christians?

In America, it is quite difficult to appreciate the Jesus brand of Christianity in relation to the exhibition of their Christian values.

There might be a case for not supporting abortion but that question was settled in John Kerry’s inspired response where he said it should be a matter between the woman, her doctor and her God.

That seems to manage the case of the personal, the medical and the religious – I would think that is what our freedom and democracy is about. Your privacy, your welfare and your faith. Albeit, it is a liberal perspective of a civilized world.

However, when it comes to the death penalty, it appears the liberals have a greater sense of mercy than the conservative fixation on the punishment, even I question why we still do need the death penalty – we have moved on in Europe on the matter.

No love, no evangelism

Beyond this, the greatest enmity of the church does not seem to be directed at the devil but at the homosexuals, the vitriol and vituperation that comes from the pulpit at those humans who I hope are part of the God-man salvation pact is definitely not going to bring them to church.

What is the need for a moral compass if the direction we take loses every sense of humanity? – mercy, justice, fairness, charity, compassion, forbearance and tolerance have been swallowed in a new man-made religion that pretends to serve a higher God.

Uncompassionate and insensitive

Two events over the last few days bring this into focus, first the suicide of three Guantanamo Bay inmates and a book published by Anne Coulter – a controversial conservative pundit.

My concern with Guantanamo Bay stems from the seeming lack of concern, compassion and sympathy for the conditions of despair that might have lead to the death of those people. To have dismissed these events as publicity stunts and acts of asymmetric warfare had me feeling for the thumping sound of my heart – just in case I was losing mine.

Anne Coulter who has been publishing a few books attacking liberalism has a new installment called Godless: The Church of Liberalism. In it there was a vitriolic and insensitive attack on some 9/11 widows whose activities have helped us gain more insight into the Genesis of the 9/11 disaster.

She wrote and I quote – “These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.”

Conservative Eugenics

The Cruz of all her arguments being liberals are pushing forward the widows, the bereaved, the disabled, the victims to make political points but by reason of their tragedies are excused from attack and criticism – Balderdash!

The undertone I can read is widows should stay home grieving, poor and helpless, the bereaved already have enough on their hands in bereavement, the disabled have no say on matters that the able-bodied can do better and the victims should be in therapy rather than be caught speaking up for the change that would prevent the creation of new victims.

You will have to scroll down to the quotations of this lady to have a measure of who this personality is.

“It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950 — except Goldwater in '64 — the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted.”

“The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet — it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars — that's the Biblical view.”

This is blue conservatism in the deepest shade.

I’ll rather be a Liberal

I can say a lot of good has come out of the activism of people who have had life-changing experiences – in my view Anne Coulter for all her smartness has been a poor standard bearer for an ideology that is finding growing support for selfishness and less application to the humane and kind.

In America, being a Liberal might be the lowest thing to be in political life, but on what the conservatives have done, I’ll rather be a liberal and liberals do go to church.

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I have many stories to tell, I am English of Nigerian parentage, I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years, returned to the UK recently but still have wander lust - the rest is somewhere online, most likely in on blogs.